Blow up a long balloon and two things happen: it gets longer and it gets wider. Now imagine a living cell that inflates itself under enormous pressure and yet only grows longer, never adding width.

Hardy bacteria in a lab survived pressures comparable to an asteroid strike on the red planet, suggesting a hypothetical scenario in which our planet was seeded with life.

Bacteria riding on sinking ocean particles can erode the mineral ballast that helps those particles descend, slowing the delivery of carbon to the deep sea and potentially weakening one of the ...

The gut bacterium Bacteroides fragilis has long presented researchers with a paradox. It has been associated with colorectal cancer, yet it also lives quite happily in most healthy people. A study by ...

Bacteria hitchhiking on marine snow can dissolve its calcium carbonate ballast, slowing the particles’ descent.